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SECOND OOPY, 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

^hap. Copyright ^o 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




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AN ODE TO 
GIKLHOOD 

AND OTHER POEMS 

Valice archer (sewali^ 

WITH FRONTISPIECE 
By H. SIDDONS MOWBKAY 



UjOuvv-. 



■X^ 




NEW YOEK AND LONDON 

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 

1899 



L 



^ 






35694 



TWO COPlflb RECeiVEO. 




Copyright, 1899, by Harper & Brothers. 

All rightt reterved. 






TO 

MY HOME 
S iietiicate 

MY BOOK 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Girlhood: An Ode 1 

In the Early Days 11 

Moonlight 13 

SiNFONIA ErOICA 16 

To A Friend on her Wedding-day 18 

In February 20 

There is a Veil 23 

While Mary Slept 23 

Madonna and Child 25 

How Love Came : Anno Domini 1 27 

Anno Domini MDCCCXCIII 30 

The White Rose 33 

The Butterfly 33 

Love and Spring 37 

The Elm-tree 39 

A Criticism in Values 43 



CONTENTS 

Fragments op Marble : pagh 

i. processional 43 

ii. the greek bath 44 

The Death of a Rose 46 

The Day After the Death op a Rose 48 

To a New-born Baby 50 

A Summer Afternoon 56 

Youth 58 

As They Walk in the Pleasant Country: Song . 61 

Lullaby 63 

The Inexpressible 65 

The Poppy 66 

The Bud 68 

The Wedding-gown 69 



GIKLHOOD 



AN ODE 



How can I write of you, whom to express 
Is to remove from you chief perfectness? 
Ye shrines of the unspoken and unborn, 
Bound whom the morn 
Plays with bewildering glory till the mind 
Deterred is in what it sought to find, 
And ye can wander free 
For worship and for mystery. 



n 



For what we know is conquered and beneath. 
'Tis the Unknown that leads us, and for this 



GIRLHOOD 

To you does Heaven bequeath 
Frailty eternal, which to even kiss 
Is to destroy 
Once more first joy. 

Ill 

Symbols and prophecies ye are; 

Yet sweeter far 

You that our eyes have seen 

Than what you mean ; 

This pregnant interval than what it brings, 

This dainty dallying 'mid little things, 

While the portentous future beats and waits 

At all your gates. 

For majesty pathetic is compressed 

To all your little limbs and speech and ways. 
And Heaven's maternal smile within your breast 

And haunt your fluttering plays. 
And so enriched ye are for earth's demand 
That never simply can ye walk or stand 

2 



GIRLHOOD 

As do all creatures, but in everything 
A hundred-folded message ye must bring, 
A hundred movements leaning into one, 
A hundred memories when ye are gone. 



IV 

Ye jewelled caskets of celestial fire 

Wherefore such rich attire? 

Such trailing veils of interfolding blues 

That cool around your warm arms twist and 
tie 

PuzzHng the charmed eye 
With hidden form and multitudinous hues< 
And pink for mimicry of love ye wear 
Who know it not, and in your slumbrous hair 
Flowers that fade ye wreathe, 
And when ye breathe 

Eush the light twinkles over broidered vest 
Where symbols of desire rise and rest; 



GIRLHOOD 

And pleasure whirls from you at ever}^ turn 
As swift your foreheads burn, 
And spheres of glory flung out as ye move 
Catch us into your love. 



Wherefore so much beyond all need so fair? 
Ye very tender are, 

And keep small animals to watch and feed. 
And would not jilt a beetle from his weed, 
And step around a resting butterfly 
With careful courtesy ; 
And from your passion-potent finger-tips, 
And long-prepared comfort of your lips. 
And shoulders hollowed for the weary man 
Since earth began. 

Ye nurse and heal whatever things ye meet. 
Then who can say ye need not be so sweet ? 

4 



GIRLHOOD 



VI 



And ye are the most innocent of all. 

Kot a curled sea-shell very frail and small, 

Nor tiny waxen lily hid in green 

Have such a presence, as upon the brink 

Of evil ye will nod and bloom nor shrink 

From what being strange is welcome as the 

rest. 
And babes who rush into your bending breast 
Seemed mated innocents who recognize 
Each other strayed from the same Paradise, 
And to each other fitted do entwine 
Rosy and sacred with instinct divine. 
And little lambs and all the soft-cheeked flowers 
Make occupations fit for the new hours 
That come without regret and pass away 
Without regret. For oh ye are so gay 
The most celestial heavens may express 
In you their holiness. 

5 



GIRLHOOD 



VII 



Though largely grown how artless is your way 

Of using your grand limbs, and how ye play 

With swift experiments 

Of thronging sense, 

As backward will ye sudden glance 

In the unplanned dance, 

And, knee to shoulder, and from hip to heel 

Great curves ye feel. 

And rippling stretch of muscles swift and 
fine 

That under ivory flesh do run and twine 

As all alert, high-foreheaded ye pace. 

And oh the grace 

That swarms like kissing bees 
Into the white-cupped spring of your omnip- 
otent throats 
Where lies the honey of your movements, 
whence the notes 
6 



GIRLHOOD 



Kun out in chords to all extremities, 
Binding in one supreme desire to please 
Both modesty and majesty and mirth 
The most complex and darling upon earth. 



vin 



And for soft-gathered friendships ye were made, 
Close as the lambs lie close in summer shade, 
Long, patient broideries ye meek will sew 
If ye may sit together, and magic grow 
The silken peacocks 'neath your bended heads 
With soft, incessant noises 
Of brooding voices. 

And ye will double longest paths to be 
In comradry ; 

And thousand intimacies unknown to men 
Ye do profoundly whisper each, and then, 
Wrapped in your mutual mysteries, ye kiss 
As flowers do that know not coarser bliss 

7 



GIRLHOOD 

And in entwined companies ye pass 
Over the twinkling grass. 

IX 

Ye have great admirations which enfold 
Your high elect in quivering heat of gold, 
Which, flung around a man, do dazzle all 
His outlines so that fact is past recall; 
So does the sun 

Dazzle the rocks with warm confusion, 
And whom you lift thus from his humble place 
Plods all unwittingly before your face 
Moving within a glory not his own 
Veiled and anointed and himself unknown. 
Oh generous and free, 
Happy are ye 
Who thus create 
Your own estate, 

And fitting earth to your supreme demand 
Meet unsurprised the Beautiful at hand. 

8 



GIRLHOOD 



The centre of the rose sees not the rose, 
The star deep in the wells of evening knows 
All other lights in heaven save his own, 

And Beauty walking in its Paradise 
Is to itself unknown ; 

For if it recognize 
Its unashamed limbs, driven, it flies 
And gazes back with aching, banished eyes. 
Fair to yourselves ye are, and every curl 
Ye know, and why it lies among its friends ; 
Ye know the signs of magic in a girl, 
But oh beware. 

Knowing the Beauty of your being fair, 
For there it ends. 

Self-knowledge is destructive. See afar. 
Standing between his folded wings, your lord ! 
Grave is his coming! Oh be what ye are! 
Nay, nay, for to this moment ye were born 

9 



GIRLHOOD 

To meet his eyes and learn 

From his sure word 

Yourself, and, intervolved in fires, burn 

Your consummation, then, your orbit run. 

From where ye pulse and hang above the morn, 

Ye slip into the bosom of the sun. 



IJSr THE EAKLY DAYS 

The great first children journeyed through 

The countries, lonely then, 
With all their sheep and little ones, 

Their cattle and their men ; 

And kept themselves in tribes apart 

For awe of the great plains ; 
And learned the length of days and nights. 

Of summers and of rains; 

And saw no other men through all 

The blue horizons wide, 
Save their own kind who came to birth, 

And marched and sang and died; 
11 



IN THE EARLY DAYS 

And left the mark of pitched tents, 

Of footprints in the dew, 
And tracks of beaten, billowed grass 

Their flocks had pastured through. 

And sometimes on a mountain-top 
They stood among their spears, 

And gazed across an unknown sea 
Into the unknown years ; 

And sometimes o'er a silent plain. 

As endless as the sky, 
A child from lands unknown would come 

And meet them eye to eye; 

And they would gaze and love and speak 

And rest awhile; and then 
Each journeyed past with all his sheep 

His cattle and his men. 



MOONLIGHT 

Come out, come out ; oh, who can stay within ? 

Unto the moon the sweet Endymion leaps. 
And wide awake the nestled poppies lean 

To make a bed where falFn Endymion sleeps. 
Oh, who would not lie down on such a bank. 

Where wreathed myrtles slippery and cool 
Blink in the dropping dew ; lie down and thank 

The Moon for once again her lovely rule. 
And watch the journeying stars above him 
move, 

And though he die ere morn, still lie and 
stare 
Between the rocking boughs unto his love; 

And then with light upon his eyelids sleep 
and smile and perish there. 

13 



MOONLIGHT 

Come out, come out, the Pearl of Beauty seize, 

For he who walks alert at night is keen 
But silent in the presence of the trees. 

And open to the Influence unseen, 
And walks and stops, and walks and stops again. 

With sensitive light breath and widened eyes, 
And weeps at every beauty as 'twere pain, 

And cannot fill his passion of the skies. 
And to him leans the Moon, the holy Moon, 

Worshipped of worshippers, till he is driven 
To ease his eyes adoring lest he swoon. 

And fails and falls he to the damp sweet 
earth as fail his eyes from heaven. 

Oh Wanderer in the wet and tangled woods, 
Or over far high fields of long white grass 

That have no horizons but melt in floods 
Of stars and dim pulsations ; come and pass 

Through your eternal yearnings and desire. 
Here is the wide circle of beech shade 
14 



MOONLIGHT 

Where sheep have lain at noon, where glow- 
worm's fire 
And pulsing crickets unto rest pursuade. 
Here is the bridal of the unmarried mind. 
A deep excitement trembles in the air. 
Die to the Day. Let no Peona find 
Thee any more ; between the faltering leaves 
she comes and she is fair. 



si:n^fonia eeoica 

He comes, the liappy warrior, 

The wind has blown him on ! 
He is great and terrible and sweet, 
From flaming hair to rapid feet. 
His presence strides the earth full-armed, com- 
plete. 

Oh, underneath his helmet-rim 

The crowded lilies lie. 
From some Elysian feast he comes. 
Struck with the passion of the drums, 
And fragrant from the feast, behold, he comes ! 
16 



SINFONIA EROIOA 

He holds all morning in his face, 

All fury and all fire. 
His panting heart bursts with disdain 
Of all that hinders him from pain; 
And mine with longing that he might remain. 



TO A FEIEND 

ON HER WEDDING-DAY 

Oh perfect Day, oh perfect Youth, 
How can I let you either go? 

One to the golden-bosomed West, 
The other where I cannot know, 

Within the heaven of Love's breast — 

Oh perfect Day, oh perfect Youth. 

Oh perfect Day, rush on, rush on, 
Though tangled are thy jewelled feet 

With clinging thoughts of all the past. 
Though flaming are the hours too sweet 

And final to be lost so fast — 

Oh perfect Day, rush on, rush on. 
18 



TO A FRIEND 

Oh perfect Past, thank God for thee, 
And let us not regret that one 

With presence star-like and small hands 
We knew the playing of has gone 

Into the sun-encircled lands — 

Oh perfect Past, thank God for thee. 

Oh Future, rising with the stars 
Into the bridal heavens, bring 

The perfect love to her, and set 
In morning, as doth everything 

That trails a glory of regret — 

Oh Future, rising with the stars. 



IlSr FEBEUAKY 

Oh happy heart, 

Oh happy, happy heart, 

What is it now that feeds thee? 
Far breath of Spring, 
Clapping of pigeon's wing, 

]^ature that calls and needs thee. 

Oh happy heart. 

Too happy far for art. 
Idle with unknown yearning. 

In the morning air 

Lean thou with forehead bare, 
Spring is returning. 

Thoughts of thy love, 
Clothed in the mists thereof, 



IN FEBRUARY 



Come with the crowing of cocks and morning 



Love stretches his roots 
And dreams of golden fruits 
Hanging in Paradise the many leaves among. 



THEEE IS A VEIL 

Theke is a veil o'er everything. 

And so we muffled walk till death, 
Unless some heart shall sob or sing 

And lift it with a sudden breath. 

Then do we see in vision plain 
The radiance desired and clear. 

And when the veil has dropped again, 
We walk but absent-minded here. 



WHILE MAKY SLEPT 

The Christ-Child watched sweet Mary's face 

The while she slept. 
And for the woe that must claim his place 

The Christ-Child wept. 

And on her breast laid kisses four, 

As a cross is made, 
To heal those wounds which for evermore 

Should be on her laid. 

And His little feet in her bosom pressed 
Where her soft hair trailed. 

To comfort her with remembrance blessed 
When His feet were nailed. 
23 



WHILE MARY SLEPT 

And laid His face on her face in sleep, 

To prevent the tears, 
When the crown of thorns with His blood 
should weep 

In the coming years. 



MADONNA AND CHILD 

Little Son, little Son, climb up to my breast, 
And lie amid its warmth at rest. 
But shut those stranger eyes from me. 

My Kose, my Sorrow, my Peace divine, 
And call me "Mother" and not "Mary," 

Although Thou art not mine. 



Oh weep not if I hold Thee tight. 
For 'mid unheeding kine at night 
1 dream Thee weak and needing me, 

Forget Thy royalty, croon and coo, 
Pretend Thee little, and handle Thee, 

As other mothers do. 
25 



MADONNA AND CHILD 

Thine eyes are closed, but He who keeps 
Watch over Israel never sleeps! 
And when I sleepless lie by Thee 

Thy little hands mine eyes do blind 
And move across them soothingly, 

And feel so large and kind. 

It is I would climb to Thy little breast, 
Oh hold me there and let me rest! 
It is I am weak and weary and small, 

And Thy soft arms can carry me; 
So put them under me, God, my All, 

And let me quiet be. 



HOW LOYE CAME 

ANNO DOMINI I 

The night was darker than ever before 

(So dark is sin), 
When the Great Love came to the stable door 

And entered in, 

And laid Himself in the breath of kine 

And the warmth of hay, 
And whispered to the Star to shine 

And to break, the Day. 

O flowers underneath the snow 

That chilled His feet. 
As He passed by did ye not know 

His footsteps sweet? 

27 



HOW LOVE CAME 

O birds whose voice He gave to sing, 

How came it that 
In the passing Presence of the Spring 

Ye silent sat? 

O Judah, with your scriptures great, 

Had you forgot? 
The Messiah passed within your gate 

And you knew it not! 

O Bethlehem, for all, all men 

The House of Bread, 
The Great Love came at midnight then 

And was not fed! 

"With all your prudent thinkings o'er 

The morrow's cares. 
With highways, taxes, markets for 

Your people's wares, 
28 



HOW LOVE CAME 

With soldiers and a Judgment Hall 

And Eomans trim, 
Your inns were large enough for all — 

Save onl}^ Him. 

You slept. He lay awake to keep 

Watch over all: 
Your crowded hearts, the far-off sheep, 

The odorous stall. 

Your priests are learned, your books are wise, 

Your legends grand ; 
But the Heart that in your stable lies 

Ye cannot understand. 



ANKO DOMINI MDCCCXCIII 

O ACHING, tired brain of Earth, 

So wise and cold, 
In winter desertness and dearth 

And taxes old. 

Be not too sure at midnight when 
You close your door 

There is no Stranger among men 
Uncared for. 

Claim not to be the Morn with King 
And Shepherd kind; 

You are the Bethlehem slumbering. 
All deaf and blind. 
30 



ANNO DOMINI MDCCCXCIII 

And through your empty streets and past 

Your windows dead 
The Great Love comes to you at last 

Unwelcomed. 

Then in the heart you only keep 

Your oxen in, 
The Great Love finds a place to sleep 

And enters in; 

And lays Himself in the breath of kine, 

All for your sake, 
And whispers to your Star to shine, 

And bids your Day to break. 



THE WHITE KOSE 

Thou art so full of the blood of love 

It beats in thy stem with its purple stain ; 

And burns thy leaves with the heat thereof, 
And softens and weakens thy thorns with 
pain. 

The white of thy heart is signed with it, 
Thy smooth cheek-petals are pale for him. 

His signet-kiss is on them writ, 

Its sweetness runneth over the brim. 

Thy perfume, little rose, ah me, 

How shall I liken it to love? 
Who has not known it cannot see 

It is the very ache thereof. 



THE BUTTEKFLY 

I AM not what I was yesterday, 

God knows my name. 
I am made in a smooth and beautiful way, 

And full of flame. 

The color of corn are my pretty wings, 

My flower is blue. 
I kiss its topmost pearl, it swings 

And I swing too. 

I dance above the tawny grass 

In the sunny air. 
So tantalized to have to pass 

Love everywhere. 



THE BUTTERFLY 

Earth, O Sky, you are mine to roam 

In liberty. 

1 am the soul and I have no home, 

Take care of me. 

For double I drift through a double world 

Of spirit and sense ; 
I and my symbol together whirled 

From who knows whence ? 

There's a tiny weed, God knows what good, 

It sits in the moss. 
Its wings are heavy and spotted with blood 

Across and across. 

I sometimes settle a moment there. 

And I am so sweet, 
That what it lacks of the glad and fair 

I fill complete. 

34 



THE BUTTERFLY 

The little white moon was once like me; 

But her wings are one. 
Or perhaps they closed together be 

As she swings in the sun. 

When the clovers close their three green wings 

Just as I do ; 
I creep to the primrose heart of things, 

And close mine too. 

And then wide opens the candid night, 

Serene and intense ; 
For she has instead of love and light 

God's confidence. 

And I watch that other butterfly, 

The one-winged moon. 
Till, drunk with sweets in which I lie, 

I dream and swoon. 
35 



THE BUTTERFLY 

And then when I to three days grow, 

I find out pain. 
For swift there comes an ache, I know 

That I am twain. 

And nevermore can I be one 

In liberty. 
O Earth, O Sky, your use is done, 

Take care of me. 



LOYE AND SPKING 

Love has been here in the night ; and to-day 

The city is overwrought. 
The streets are thrilled with a strange perfume, 
And life is stopped in silence and bloom 

Too sweet for thought. 

Love has been here in the night; and to-day 

The ache of it is deep. 
For even the pale little eager moon 
Comes up from her tree-tops hours too soon, 

For she cannot sleep. 

Love has been here in the night; and to-day 
The world is overstrained. 
37 



LOVE AND SPKIXG 

It is only the Spring ? Ah, yes, but Love 
Has left a joy in the heart thereof 
All unexplained. 

Spring, thou art only a measure of time 

In happy Xature's sight; 
It is Love that burns his path through snow 
To open Earth's heart; and Love, I know, 

Was here in the night. 



THE ELM-TKEE 

The young elm stands alone 
In a field of its own. 
And the spirit that feeds it is the summer air, 
That long-armed, reaching spirit, soft and bare, 
That brings it dew and stars and thoughts 
serene : 
The young elm standing alone 
In a field of its own 

Of emerald green. 

It is never restless or wild like the lesser trees; 
It stirs not, save to weight of little bird. 
Preoccupied with dreams it stands. 
Lifting its benediction hands 
Over the happy lands. 
And aye forgets to drop them or say the 
word. 

39 



THE ELM. TREE 

It wraps itself in a vine 
Of its own design, 
That hides its naked litheness twine on twine, 
Till over itself it leans to look and smile 
At its own gay loveliness, and all the while 
It is there in the fields alone, 
With none to marvel, and none 
Its secret majestic pleasures to divine. 

So self-absorbed it lives in dreams so deep 
It scarcely notices the noon-day sheep 

That lie in its shadow's brink 

To chew the clover and blink, 
Then pillowed in their mutual love to sleep. 

The dew and the dark of the heavens it holds 

In its leafy folds. 
And bears like a mother the little birds, 

And says soft words 
To the young oxen standing below, 
40 



THE ELM. TREE 

With their wide faces 
In their stamped places, 
Standing below. 

But in the night, which all trees love, 

It opens its heart to the spirit of air, 
And the subtle leaves disclosing move. 

Oh, sudden, strange, and fair ! 
The yellow moon lies shrined there. 

And the elm rejoices now. 
See, it lifts her upward, bough by bough. 
Till alert she stands 
In the clinging hands 
That yearn to give what more they yearn to 

keep, 
And fling her out to the stars, to the stars and 
the deep. 



A CRITICISM IN YALTJES 

]^AY, lips SO sweet, ye must not be so red, 
Else were all roses for your sake but dead. 
Would you rob us of summer for your sake? 
Our pittance of dear Paradise would take, 
And lock it in the garden of your smile, 
Where our bereavement charmed is awhile? 
Nay, lips so sweet, ye must not be so red. 

Nay, eyes so clear, ye must not be so blue. 
Else were all heaven entranced down to you. 
Would you absorb our skies that we may 

know 
How sweet for sunshine to yourselves to go? 
And set your premium on the blessed day. 
Knowing so well we cannot choose but pay ? 
Nay, eyes so clear, ye must not be so blue. 



FKAGMEISTTS OF MAEBLE 



PROCESSIONAL 

My love leads the white bulls to sacrifice. 
He is white, and he leans against their folded 

necks. 
Blue is the sky behind them, and the dust from 

the highway yellows his ivory limbs. 
He leans and moves, restraining, yet drawn 

on by tossing heads. 
He feels the festal music ; rapid and strong 

are his arms and breast ; 
Yet from his waist beneath, loose and slow 

is his resting pace. 
43 



FRAGMENTS OF MARBLE 

Flowers are in his hair, and he is fair. 
He thinks he is but strong ; he can overcome, 
And his mind sees only the impatient horns ; 
But my heart sees his slimness, and would 
care for him like a mother. 
My love leads the white bulls to sacrifice. 



n 

THE GREEK BATH 

Behold him fresh-sprung from the tepid bath, 
Light-poised, refulgent ; from his polished limbs 
The vapors warm drip to the rosy heels 
That kiss the pavement; to his cheek and neck 
The ruddy curls beaded with moisture cling. 
The breast, superb, with delicate desires 
Pants after life indefinite ; alert 
In his own glory rests he. Hail, all hail. 
Thou passing instant of the Perfect, hail. 
44 



FRAGMENTS OF MARBLE 

For with the act which wakes and which de- 
stroys, 
Lo, how he swift has turned upon his thigh 
With movement slight, and glances to his heel. 



THE DEATH OF A EOSE 

The hours hold thee in caress, 

Too frail for years. 

The subtle minutes hold 

In spaces gold 

Thy movements palpitant, and silent spheres 

Wait on thy passion strained 

From centuries full-veined. 

Close form compacted from divine excess 

Of all that's human, in the darkening room 

Thou layest wide thy bloom. 

Shivers of fire and pearl illumine thee; 

Celestial vigor stains thine ivory^ 

And bourgeoning to fulness dost thou lean. 

Oh pulse unseen ! 

46 



THE DEATH OF A ROSE 

The room is heavy, nothing moves ; no 

breath. 
Soft falls thy first-lost petal. In amaze 
Thou bendest over it to gaze 
And meetest Death. 



THE DAY AFTEK THE DEATH 
OF A EOSE 

I COULD not call thee friend, 

To whom I nothing gave. 
Yet now that thou art gone 
The house is bare and lone, 

And with me always a regret I have. 

Thy presence in a room 

Did lesser things restrain. 
At table in my place. 
To think upon thy face 

Did make me rise and go to thee again. 

I played the sweetest airs 
Upon the tender keys. 

48 



DAY AFTER THE DEATH OF A ROSE 

But thou beside me gazing 
Wast sweetness so amazing, 

That silence dropped between the harmonies. 

And when I went abroad 

I was of thee aware 
Behind me in the room, 
And felt thy hastening bloom, 

And all thy precious petals opening there. 

And in the silent night. 

When I lay down to sleep. 
Thy heart so wide awake, 
Its most of life to take, 

Did force me like a tragedy to weep. 

Oh, Beauty, art thou dead ? 

Soft-fallen, didst thou die ? 
How comes it that we meet- 
That thou shouldst lie complete 

Within the hand of thing so frail as I? 
D 49 



TO A NEW-BOKN BABY 



KisE, Baby, rise, 

Life is incomplete. 
Heaven needs thine eyes. 

Earth thy dancing feet, 
Birds thy rapt attention. 

Moon thy mild dismay : 
All earth's sweet invention 

For thy use at play; 
Startling red the berries 

For thy wild delight. 
Flowers full of fairies 

To shut them up at night. 
And perfect every blade of grass 
Where heaven-accustomed feet shall pass. 
50 



TO A NEW-BORN BABY 

n 

Earth has run before thee, 

Honey-hedged her lanes, 
Sent up skylarks o'er thee. 

Feather-wet with rains: 
Hung w^ith dew the shadows, 

Broidered all the rocks, 
Cowslipped all the meadows 

For thy nibbling flocks ; 
Yoiced her exultation 

In summer-throated birds, 
Smiled a salutation 

Far too sweet for words. 
And laid before thy homesick eyes 
Her memories of Paradise. 

Ill 

Come, Baby, come ! 
Come to wrong and pain, 
51 



TO A NEW-BORN BABY 

With thy quick tears, come, 

And wash earth clean again. 
Come with sweet young fancies 

We have lost so soon : 
Midnight fairy dances 

Whirled against the moon, 
Madrigals unsung, 

All spirit-footed sighs 
The dreaming trees among, 

Before thy dreaming eyes ; 
Strange presences along the green. 
And tinkling flutes of gods unseen. 



IV 



Strange, thou dost not know 
What we daily pass! 

Stars that come and go! 
Cobwebs in the grass ! 
52 



TO A NEW-BORN BABY 

Strange, that thou shalt find 

Dandelions new ! 
And of playful mind 

Man and nature too ! 
Strange, to recreate 

Eden round thy knees! 
God, unfeared playmate, 

Souls in all the trees! 
Strange, that Truth for us is hidden, 
Yet daily walks with thee unbidden! 



Virtue and valor's union 
Cometh sure of these: 

That first drunk communion 
With the sinless trees ; 

Thoughts at morning, thought 
'Mid the larks and dew, 
53 



TO A NEW-BORN BABY 

Most divinely fraught 

For thy uses true, 
When thy youth's defiance 

Calls thee far away 
Into self-reliance 

And the burning day, 
And hands unknown, in service sweet. 
Tie winged sandals to thy feet. 



VI 



Hail, Baby, hail ! 

Life is worth the tvjiug I 
Worth it if we fail. 

Worth it even dying! 
I am here; I know 

That no robin's song 
But is worth the woe 

Of a whole life long. 
54 



TO A NEW-BORN BABY 

Love is over-plenty 

For the famine stored, 
Joy enough for twenty 

Eound each head is poured ; 
And long before thy need begin 
Goodness and truth are garnered in! 



A SUMMEK AFTEElSrOOK 

In the reaching shade of trees, 

Where the trees are not, 
With the level hills beyond, 

Blue and fair and hot, 

On my back I lie at rest, 

Tranquilly to drowse, 
Watch the happy horses feed 

And the peaceful cows. 

There are daisies rollicking 

In the western sun ; 
Soon the shade will catch you, dears, 

And your day is done. 
56 



A SUMMER AFTERNOON 

All aslant for love of him 

Through the long grass flocking, 

First one nods and then the next, 
And all the buds go rocking. 

And because there are no trees 

'Twixt me and the sky, 
I shall find the dim, sweet moon 

Somewhere by-and-by. 

There she is, and there again 

She has gone somehow. 
Far too wide and deep the sky 

For me to find her now. 

Oh, it is a happy thing 
When summer days are hot, 

To lie within the shade of trees. 
But where the trees are not. 



YOUTH 

I AM the spirit that denies. 

Yes, and with full-regarding eyes 

Comprehending the facts of earth's sorrow and 

shame, 
And denying the truth of it just the same; 
That takes man's face in two palms soft, 
And looks deep into its brow and oft, 
And finds the good it has longed to find. 
And denies there is anything hidden behind. 

I am the spirit that denies 
This earth to be no more Paradise. 
I deny that God walks not with men. 
I have met Him at even and talked with Him 
then. 

58 



YOUTH 

I deny that of love there is ever a lack, 
For I've felt His sun-arm across my back 
As I wandered at spring-time into the land, 
And talked with the dog-wood hand in hand. 

I am the spirit that denies 

Straight into your face, straight into your eyes, 

Wise Age, that for all your wisdom and gain 

You are nobler for noticing every stain. 

I deny that one cannot race on through earth's 

heat 
And come out healthy and clean and sweet. 
I deny that God's path is so overgrown 
That a child could not toddle straight to Him 

alone. 

I am the spirit that denies 
Any fear of the earth or the seas or the skies ; 
That fronts the Unknown with forehead calm. 
And gathers Life's reins with my soft, wet palm. 
59 



YOUTH 

I learn a verse from the Bible by heart, 
And well provided with love, I start, 
And deny that Heaven is so far away 
That I cannot reach it at close of day. 



AS THEY WALK IN THE 
PLEASANT COUNTRY 

SONG 

Look, love, how the wild roses kiss in the wind ; 
Look, love, how the butterfly dallies behind ; 
Look, love, how the robins are mating above ; 
My heart would be mating, oh, look on me, 
love. 

Look, love, on the poppies all blowing and red ; 
Look, love, on the pretty asparagus bed ; 
Look, love, how the green apples hang on the 

bough ; 
My heart's full of summer, oh, look on me now. 

61 



AS THEY WALK IN THE COUNTRY 

Look, love, on the white village steeple afar ; 
Look, love, on the hills, see how peaceful they 

are; 
Look, love, on the beauty of yonder green tree : 
Look no more on anything, only on me. 



LULLABY 

O'er the hay-cocks comes the moon, 
Father will be coming soon 
Through the clover and the dew, 
Home to mother and to you. 
In the barn-yard he will stay, 
Just to put his scythe away. 
Cows and sheep wait for him, too; 
Dearer than his flocks are you. 

Arms that labor all day long 
Are for loving very strong. 
Hearts that bear the heat of Junes 
Know so many pretty tunes. 
63 



LULLABY 

Fire-flies and fire-stars 
Twinkle through the pasture bars, 
Miles of meadows are at rest; 
Sleep, for father loves you best. 



THE INEXPKESSIBLE 

As one who, lounging through a summer noon 
Down in the clover where the crickets pla}^ 

Watching above the hay-cocks the white moon 
Dreaming her midnight in a blaze of day, 

Appreciates in rapt dismay the whole, 

In sweet winds drifting over fields new mown, 

Yet, through the very fulness of his soul, 
Cannot and cares not much to write it down ; 

So in my sweetheart's sweetness does my heart 
Lie down in w^onder of her loveliness, 

Which is too intimate to give to art. 
Too much to feel to wittingly express. 
E 65 



THE POPPY 

There is a poppy growing 
In rny city's little square ; 

Between its red lips glowing, 
The fields of Pome are there. 

The charm of the Campagna 

Has lured me away 
To the long white heat of grasses 

That whistle and sweep and sway. 

And in the cool, clean shadow 

Of an empty little tomb, 
I lie and study the arabesques 

That haunt the plastered gloom. 
66 



THE POPPY 

The poppies are linked with satyrs 
Who dance by one and two, 

And lean with lizards into their cups 
To sip a drop of dew. 

From out the cool, clean shadow 
Of the tomb deserted and gay, 

I see the living poppies 

In the long grass sweep and sway. 

And from out my office window, 

Above the city square, 
I see the exile poppy. 

And the fields of Kome are there. 



THE BUD 

It was all green and still, 
And not a twig did move. 

Then suddenly it was there, 
As is the thought of love. 

A star lost in the day, 

All still and strange and sweet, 
It peers between the green. 

For worship does entreat. 

And some night in the dark, 
A flower wide and fair 

Is lying on the tired leaves — 
The bud has vanished, where? 
68 



THE WEDDING-GOWN 

Thou art sacred and shining and soft with the 
dreams of old. 
To thy making went 
Heartful content, 
And fingers slow with dreams and wonder- 
ment. 
Faint radiance from her visions dost thou hold. 
With thy wearing came 
Thoughts of his name, 
Of home and mother never again the same. 
Shake out her presence from each shining fold. 
She is here, she is fair. 
The young sisters stare. 
While trembling mother-fingers, eyes love-blind. 
Grope for the little button-holes behind. 



THE WEDDING-GOWN 

She burns, she glows, 

And from her brows 
Her hair is braided in with dreams and vows ; 
And the high shell-comb she has so longed to 

wear 
Completes at last the glory of her hair. 

She is ready at last, open the chamber-door; 
She is ready at last. 
Where is the trumpet-blast 
And the thunder of drums? 
For she comes, she comes, 
Down the narrow, winding stair, 
Silent and fine and fair; 
And the lads on the open threshold lean and 
stare. 
Silent and slow she gleams. 
And her eyes are full of dreams; 
She sees the country teams 
At the fence outside. 
70 



THE WEDDING-GOWN 

Down the little stair she comes at last, the Bride, 
And the wind from the hay -field blows the 

veil aside. 
She is ready at last; open the chamber-door. 
And close it behind her on the ]^ever-raore. 

She is gone ; and the house is clianged and 
thrilled and dim. 
There is nothing to say 
Now that she is away ; 
Let us all be quiet and think of the wonder- 
ful day. 
The moon in the orchard walks, and the Avorld 

is white. 
Shut the doors; the child will not come home 
to-night. 
She was kind, she was good, she was true. 
What more had we to do 
Than to make her so, and send her away with 
him? 

71 



THE WEDDING-GOWN 

Oh, Love, that cannot step inside the door, 
But the house is perfumed through for ever- 
more, 
All through the house and up and down the 

stair 
Where she has passed, thou lea vest violets there, 
Dropped from thy hair, 
And heavy is the heart, heavy the air. 

She is gone ; yes, years ago, but Love goes 

never. 
And sleeps in folded wedding-gowns forever. 
Unfold it while in heart thou dost unfold 
The rose-laid faith and passion of thy youth ; 
And she is here as in the days of old. 
Here in all truth ; 

And passes through the dreaming mind, 

Trailing disorder sweet behind. 

And visions turbulent with summer wind ; 

73 



THE WEDDING-GOWN 

Of sweet-stringed instruments, and tables white 
For those who march in, in the candle-light ; 

Of choking love that boasts 

The proudest of all toasts. 
And drinks it, silent, to the face that beams 
At the other end of that far feast in dreams. 



THE END 



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93 \»^^ 



